New problem has shown up using PB on my Matrix. Bursts of bright light randomly “jump and sputter”. Don’t believe its a power issue as I’ve checked voltage at beginning and at end of matrix and it a constant 5.13V at both ends. Also ground is solid. I’m guessing that the DATA line (WS2018 pixels) is sputtering and not sending a steady stream. Any ides how to solve this issue?
FredEBear
P.S. - I made a short video but have no idea how to incorperate into this post.
I’m not saying all of these could apply to your situation, but I’ve definitely seen “sputtering” in a few situations:
- Voltage drop, which you already eliminated.
- The distance between controller and first pixel was too long.
- A physical data line was compromised, such as a cold solder joint or a flex copper trace going bad.
- One of the pixels was going bad. Sometimes this even happens with breakpoint-continue dual-data pixels like the WS2813, WS2815, and WS2818. You can try bodging/jumpering bad pixels.
- The pixel output rate timing was inconsistent or wrong. To be fair, I’ve never had a problem with the driver on the v3.
- There were just too many pixels in one long line (possibly signal reflections)
- Using a clocked pixel like the WS2801 or APA102 with too fast a clock speed combined with too long a run.
Do all patterns sputter? Are you using WS2801 or WS2818?
Thank you for your suggestions. One which I never though of actually fixed the problem. The brightness, which I had at 10, was too low. I raised it to over 40 then the sputtering stopped! This problem had me stumped for over one week but, like my wife tells me, I’m like a dog with a bond; I just won’t let it go.
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Darn I was wrong. Even with volume up (brightness) the problem seemed fixed for about 10 minutes then the sputtering started up again. WS2812’s are what the Matrix is made from. Circular and in the same direction.
I just had this problem w/ mine. Several pixels at the ends of a few strips were randomly flashing full brightness. My situation is different… I’m using the output expander and strips w/ the separate clock line. But basically, had a loose ground pad on one of the strips. I moved the ground wire to the next pad down, and everything is happy.
I could tell the issue was physical, but couldn’t pinpoint it. I was to the point I was resoldering every joint… And when I lightly reheated this pad, it fell off. One strip had the bad pad, but 3 of my six strips were flashing… I think it was causing interference on the clock line, which is shared among all of them.
I’d try resoldering the wires. I also read a post recently where someone had one bad led, and jumpering past it fixed their bright flashes. (Edit to say, I just noticed Jeff mentioned the bad led possibility earlier)